Rosie can’t wait for her baby brother to be born. But when he does arrive, Bobby is the smallest, weakest little hare ever, and Rosie feels scared. She doesn’t want to have anything to do with him until the day Dad tells her a special story that helps her understand that Bobby is “slow and steady.” That night, she holds her baby brother for the first time and feels his heart beating against hers.
Fifteen-year-old Bec, living with her family in Perth, Australia, decides to stop being sensible and follow her wilder impulses during the summer that her parents are away on a long trip to help her father recover from a breakdown.
When you’re so skinny people call you Skeleton Boy, how do you find strength for the fight of your life? Twelve-year-old Vonlai knows that soldiers who guard the Mekong River shoot at anything that moves, but in oppressive Communist Laos, there’s nothing left for him, his spirited sister, Dalah, and his desperate parents. Their only hope is a refugee camp in Thailand—on the other side of the river. When they reach the camp, their struggles are far from over. Na Pho is a forgotten place where life consists of squalid huts, stifling heat, and rationed food. Still, Vonlai tries to carry on as if everything is normal. He pays attention in school, a dusty barrack overcrowded with kids too hungry to learn. And, to forget his empty stomach, he plays soccer in a field full of rocks.
Full of heart and humor, this coming-of-age tale is no small thing — the tale of a boy’s search for love and identity in the face of longing, abandonment, and uncertainty. When twelve-year-old Nathaniel and his two sisters discover an ad in the paper for a free pony, they can hardly believe their luck. But what will their mother say? Mom’s been having a hard time ever since Dad walked out on them four years ago. But caring for a pony might keep Nat and his older sister, Cid, from bickering, and it would mean so much to eight-year-old Queenie. It takes some serious persuasion — and a promise to use Nat’s paper route money for the pony’s keep — but Mom finally relents. And so begins a year of self-discovery, as Nat struggles to deal with his father’s absence; look out for his younger sister, who is “different”; and recover from having his heart broken by a rich, pretty girl from school. Life is not always easy, but Nat knows that Smokey, his very own pony, will be waiting for him at the end of each day. Or will he?
Chineze thinks her little brother Ife’s hair is messy! But soon it’s time for Ife to have his first haircut. Uncle Mike very carefully cuts Ife’s hair with his scissors and a comb, and afterwards there’s a party for Chineze and her family to celebrate Ife’s very first haircut.
Would you eat a wormy, squirmy mud taco? Marissa loves her big brother, Mario. He always comes up with fun ideas. When playing in their nanas backyard, they decide to make some wormy, squirmy mud tacos. That gives Mario an idea how about some real tacos for lunch. Before long it is off to the store with Nana, but first they must pick up their cousins Rosie and Chico. When Chico starts acting like a hotshot to prove that he is a big kid, can his cousins, with the help of a few mud tacos, show him how to have some real fun?
Caroline Crocodile goes to a baby shop to see if she can exchange her drooly brother, but finds that the baby panda is a fussy eater, the baby elephant too squirty and her brother has reason to drool.
Twelve-year-old Bluebell Gadsby’s written and video diary chronicles life in a rowdy London family, and how Zoran, the new au pair, and Joss, the troublemaking boy next door, help to pull her out of her shell and cope with the loss of her twin three years before.
It is 1914, and the Ottoman Empire is crumbling into violence. Beyond Anatolia, in the Armenian Highlands, Shahen Donabedian dreams of going to New York. Sosi, his twin sister, never wants to leave her home, especially now that she is in love. At first, only Papa, who counts Turks and Kurds among his closest friends, stands in Shahen’s way. But when the Ottoman pashas set in motion their plans to eliminate all Armenians, neither twin has a choice. After a horrifying attack leaves them orphaned, they flee into the mountains, carrying their little sister, Mariam. But the children are not alone. An eagle watches over them as they run at night and hide each day, making their way across mountain ridges and rivers red with blood.
In 1814 London, Gretchen must put aside annoyance at the constant buzzing caused by being a Whisperer, concern about her twin brother, her growing feelings for a member of the Order of Iron Nail, and the boredom of being a debutante when a new menace threatens Mayfair.